The 2019 Charter Revision Commission, which is looking at ways to improve the city’s central governing document, heard suggestions on Monday from community-based organizations, fiscal watchdogs, and former and current city officials about potential changes to the city’s byzantine budgeting process.

Over the course of more than three hours, experts weighed in on the city’s flawed contract procurement system, the severe lack of transparency in spending on capital projects, the possibility of creating a rainy day fund for the city, and measures to generally improve accountability in city spending. There was general agreement that city procurement needs to be overhauled to make it more efficient and transparent, but broader opposition to changes in the budgeting process and the administration’s ability to set revenues and expenditures.
The city’s capital spending process has been particularly fraught, leading to hundreds of millions in cost overruns and delayed projects. At the hearing, Jon Kaufman, chief operating officer at the Department of City Planning, outlined several reforms DCP has implemented and said that his department works with agencies to appropriately plan their future capital needs. But, he said, “I don’t think additional charter mandates are going to lead to materially increased collaboration.”

Independent fiscal watchdogs also bolstered the administration’s argument. Carol Kellermann, former president of the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC), gave the commission two pieces of advice: “First, do no harm...Second, don’t use the charter to do things that can be done by local law.”

For the first time since taking office, Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced plans to implement a Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG), which requires agencies to generate savings through expense reductions or revenue enhancements. The de Blasio administration previously eschewed PEGs in favor of Citywide Savings Plans (CSPs); in contrast to the PEG, agency participation in the CSP was voluntary. Pursuing a PEG presents both a challenge and an opportunity. This blog proposes three guidelines for the process: 1) identify significantly more than $750 million in savings, 2) encourage recurring savings through efficiency, and 3) follow agencies’ leads.

At the end of fiscal year 2018, New York City debt outstanding grew to $119 billion. As total debt has grown—by 75 percent since 2005—the forms of debt the City issues have also diversified. This growth affects the City budget in the form of higher debt service costs. For City-supported debt, debt service costs were slightly below 11 percent of tax revenues in fiscal year 2018.

The Budget Navigator is an online tool that allows New Yorkers to be their own budget watchdogs. Users can examine New York State or City revenues and expenses to determine levels of funding in recent years, analyze trends, and see how that funding compares between departments and services.

The Executive Budget does not sufficiently restrain spending growth or build reserves, which are critical if the State is to weather an eventual economic downturn without harmful spending cuts and counterproductive tax increases.

25,000 is the number of jobs that would have been created under a now-defunct deal with Amazon to create a second headquarters in Long Island City, Queens. Vishaan Chakrabarti, founder of the Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), discusses the deal and how its failure may impact New York City's economic competitiveness.